Rogerio Alves said those who blamed the couple were just as likely to pin Maddie's mysterious disappearance on Superman or UFOs.

Kate and Gerry McCann’s Portuguese lawyer has slammed the grim idea they had anything to do with their daughter Madeleine’s disappearance as “unfounded and absurd”.

Rogerio Alves, who has assisted the family as their criminal lawyer, said “ignorant” people who blamed the couple were just as likely to pin Maddie’s mysterious disappearance on Superman or UFOs.

He also hit out at ignorant people who have unfairly demonised Kate and Gerry in “industrial doses” as he branded them “human beings experiencing deep suffering”.

He also insisted the idea that the missing youngster had been snatched made more sense.

Mr Alves told a Portuguese interviewer: “As no sign of a homicide, a suicide, her being run over, a drowning, or anything else that could also be plausible has been found, the theory of an abduction is the one that makes most sense.”

He insisted the idea that the McCanns had friends in powerful places – a theory believed by former chief investigator Goncalo Amaral who has bizarrely claimed MI5 hid Maddie’s body – was purely “fantasy.”

Reflecting on the early years of the Madeleine case, he said: “One of the most damaging things that most harmed the case was the permanent creation of tensions between the British and Portuguese police and states.”

It comes after Scotland Yard chief Mark Rowley confirmed that Madeleine’s parents – who had their ‘arguido’ status removed in July 2008 when the original Portuguese police probe was archived – were no longer seen as possible suspects.

He said: “The parents’ involvement was dealt with at the time by the original investigation by the Portuguese.

“We’re happy that’s completely dealt with and there is no reason whatsoever to re-open that or start rumours that’s a line of investigation.”